In a nutshell: The first step up from where most people are today is to become a “culture hacker,” where our awareness is sufficiently raised so that our thoughts create our reality, a la “The Secret.” Next comes a “state of limitless,” where we begin to live in service to a mission or higher calling.

I’m fascinated with the topic thanks to my own direct encounters with the Divine — the “total connectedness” found on Lakhiani’s top level he calls “The God Mind.”

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Saturday, September 14, 2013 — The first day God spoke to me happened to be Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. But instead of fasting and praying to Him in synagogue, I was soaking up the sun contemplating what movie to see that afternoon.

Here’s how it started. Scrolling through showtimes on my phone, I began to feel a vague uneasy restlessness until it grew into a strong compulsion to head home and try to relax somehow.

Once home, something inside me told me to pick up a pad of paper and pen, although I had no idea what for.

It’s hard to explain exactly what happened next. Describing the indescribable is an inexact science. The best way I can explain it is that I started “feeling” words. It was as if they were appearing inside me from somewhere rather than I was consciously creating them myself. I started writing, or more like transcribing. At times it felt as if I could barely keep up with the pace of the flow.

Then just as quick as it started, it was over. I found myself in an intense sweat, my heart racing, feeling incredibly light-headed and discombobulated. I would later discover it to be similar to how other people describe out-of-body experiences. My experience was definitely outside of time. I could hardly believe it when I looked at the clock to see that nearly three hours had past. It felt more like a few minutes.

I’ve experienced this same phenomenon dozens of times, usually days or weeks apart, over the next two years and counting. These “downloads” alternate between God speaking to me in His own voice, with my own first person (as if I’m a psalmist). I have no real memory of receiving any of it. What happens “during” the dictation feels as if it happens in an instant yet each time hours pass and I’ve filled page after page of original, poetic, brilliant, direct Divine communication. I share a lot of it on Facebook.

While I continue to receive these periodic downloads, more recently, casual pop-in visits are becoming the more frequent norm thanks to growing into the awareness that this connection is available all the time.

For instance, choosing to enter a contemplative, meditative state to receive guidance or assurance to whatever I may need in the moment. Call it prayer, but it is more a feeling than specific words.

I think of it like surfing — the ocean of God is limitless and we can choose to catch a wave or not.

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God — or “The God Mind” — is not religion.

So who — or what — is God?

God is the universal presence that is everywhere and inside of everyone. Nobody needs to speak for God. Instead, God needs to speak through us. When we laugh. When we love. When we celebrate. When we encourage. When we give thanks and give of ourselves including our unique purpose, the gift God has given each of us.

It is no coincidence that humanity is waking up to the fact that God is not religion.

Case in point: More Americans than ever are walking away from religion — but not God — according to results of a Pew Research Center survey released this month.

The survey results show the religiously unaffiliated now account for 23% of the adult population, up from 16% in 2007.

Religious commitment has declined among men and women, marrieds and singles, across educational, racial, ethnic and geographic lines. Drops are seen in every age group, although especially pronounced among Milllenials.

The study also suggests that in some ways Americans are becoming more spiritual. About 60% say they regularly feel a deep sense of “spiritual peace and well-being,” up 7% since 2007. And 46% of Americans say they experience a deep sense of “wonder about the universe” at least once a week, also up 7% over the same period.

This is our choice: We can try to contain an immature understanding of a distant God in the corners of our minds, or we embrace the full awareness of the vibrant God who here and now can flow freely from the center of our hearts.